Laurie Lee

Team: Chief Executive

Profile:

I joined CARE in August 2014, because I believe strongly in our focus on economic development, gender equality and people holding governments accountable. My focus at CARE is on ensuring we have the best people to do the job we do, to support our teams on the ground in over 70 developing countries, and to ensure we continuously improve our ability to monitor the impact of our work, and learn how to do it even better.

Prior to CARE I worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for seven years, advising them on development policy issues in Europe and Africa. Before that I worked for the British government. I managed British development programmes in South Africa and Afghanistan. He worked in 10 Downing Street to prepare the G8 Gleneagles Summit on Africa in 2005. And I ran the DFID Trade Policy Unit until 2008.

One good thing I've read

One of CARE’s goals is to help the 2 billion people – including 1.1 billion women – without access to financial services, to get them. This great and easy book, Portfolios of the poor: How the world's poor live on $2 a day, by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, explains why there’s no such thing as living 'hand to mouth'. The poorer you are, the more you need financial management tools.

Blog posts

Suffering in silence: The 70 million people you might have never heard of

Tuesday, 23 January 2018 15:07

2017 has no question been a year of harrowing humanitarian crises, a deadly year of natural disasters. According to the UN, never in our lifetimes have so many people been in need of humanitarian assistance as in 2017. What might surprise you

Maintaining UK responsibilities towards refugees post-Brexit

Thursday, 14 December 2017 15:38

This week (14-15 December 2017) Theresa May is in Brussels for a crunch time EU Heads of State Council meeting. The terms of Brexit, including the status of European citizens, the Irish border and future trading relations, are top of the

Tribute to Jo Cox: A passionate campaigner for justice and a better world

World Humanitarian Summit: Local civil society is an effective humanitarian actor

Thursday, 19 May 2016 12:19

Currently an average of only 0.2% of global humanitarian aid goes directly to local or national NGOs and civil society organisations. Multiple studies have shown that local capacity is often significantly underutilised, undervalued and overlooked by

Hoping for the best in Syria – and making the most of a ceasefire

Wednesday, 03 February 2016 14:24

I met several Syrians in Jordan and Turkey during a recent visit (mid-January). All of them said they just wanted the war and the violence to stop so they could go home. Some were more hopeful than others that this would happen soon. But that’s

Syria Conference: Making markets work for refugees

Wednesday, 20 January 2016 15:51

Ahead of the Syria conference in London in early February, donors and governments in the region are working closely to agree a new plan for responding to the refugee crisis in the region. The private sector will be critical to its

Blog by Laurie Lee and Ramil Burden (Vice President, Africa and developing countries, GSK):
In the north eastern corner of Bangladesh lies Sunamganj district. A remote area that is underwater for almost half of the year, it is one of the hardest

In the north eastern corner of Bangladesh lies Sunamganj district. A remote area that is underwater for almost half of the year, it is one of the hardest places in the country to be a mother. In 2012, only 11% of births were assisted by a skilled

In the north eastern corner of Bangladesh lies Sunamganj district. A remote area that is underwater for almost half of the year, it is one of the hardest places in the country to be a mother. In 2012, only 11% of births were assisted by a skilled

Teams

CARE works around the world to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. We put women and girls in the centre because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities.